Mexico City Mayor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who is waging a progressive populist campaign for his country’s presidency, has some plans sure to incense U.S. conservatives in border states: redrafting the free-trade aspects of NAFTA that force Mexicans to emigrate northward; turning every Mexican consulate in the U.S. into a legal aid center to defend immigrant rights; and vocal opposition to the militarization of the U.S.-Mexico border.
Truthdig salutes Ron Suskind, the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer whose most recent book, “The One Percent Doctrine,” stripped down Vice President Dick Cheney’s counter-terrorism philosophy to its Strangelovian essence: If there is a 1% chance of a terrorist attack, America must respond as though it is a 100% certainty.
Click here for disclosures from the book, Suskind TV appearances, links to other writings and biographical information.
The satirist reports that Sen. Kerry’s words may have fallen on deaf ears at the White House, where President Bush vowed to remain in Iraq “until we have determined why we are there.”
Michael Winterbottom and Mat Whitecross have made a necessary and important critique of grave injustices at Guantanamo Bay. But are their storytelling techniques entirely on the level?
During a 1976 interview for Playboy magazine that would produce one of the most famous remarks by a presidential candidate in modern times, Jimmy Carter told Robert Scheer, “I’ve committed adultery in my heart many times.” Check out an excerpt of that exchange, along with many more in Scheer’s new book, “Playing President.”
As the Fourth of July approaches, show your support for our hard-won freedoms: Urge your senator not to make a mockery of them by voting for the flag burning ban.
Bush just designated a stretch of the Hawaiian Islands a national monument after watching a documentary about the ocean there. How nice. So what, exactly, is his excuse for not even watching Al Gore’s movie on a slightly more important environmental issue?
Dennis Hastert gets caught in a suspect land deal, Rep. Jerry Lewis is in deep with a stinko lobbying firm, and the Department of Homeland Security has become a Republican playground. Can’t the GOP, self-proclaimed bastion of morality, small government and fiscal responsibility, get anything right?
The political satirist writes that launching Hussein into space will achieve two of President Bush’s oft-stated goals: bringing the Iraqi to justice and landing a man on Mars.
Truthdig salutes Pa. Rep. John Murtha for his sustained leadership in demanding a pullout of U.S. troops out from Iraq. Particularly inspiring was his conduct during Thursday’s congressional debate over the war. A GOP congressman all but called Murtha a coward, and the 38-year Marine veteran thundered back a response that sent the congressman scurrying for cover. In doing so, Murtha again demonstrated the Republican fallacy of equating a call for withdrawal with weakness. It’s a lesson more Democrats could stand to learn.
A new report shows that Bush has slashed anti-AIDS programs across the board. Meanwhile, he’s pandering to the religious right by pushing abstinence-until-marriage programs--regardless of the fact that they are proven ineffective at stopping the spread of HIV. Don’t bother Bush with facts; his mind is made up.
America has allocated just under $320 billion to date on the Iraq war--a price tag so staggeringly large that it has almost become an abstraction. To help put that number into context, we’re asking our readers to chime in with suggestions as to what else you could buy for $320 billion. (Primer: $320 billion would fund America’s adoption of the Kyoto Protocol.)
In a 1980 interview between George H.W. Bush and then-L.A. Times reporter Robert Scheer, Bush revealed his belief in a winnable nuclear war--which many observers think lost him the Republican nomination to Ronald Reagan. Check out this interview and many more in Scheer’s new book “Playing President.”
“With the predictable regularity of a locust plague, Ann Coulter and her enablers at the once-reputable firm of Random House have issued yet another volume of fascistic entertainment. Now the hard-drinking, trash-talking, fortysomething bachelorette bills herself as a Christian moralist, in holy battle against the liberal heathens.”
The media continues to fizz with excitement at Bush’s “spontaneous” trip to Iraq, and his “eye to eye” with Prime Minister Maliki. However, continuously escalating violence reveals his visit to be just another misleading “Mission Accomplished” photo-op moment.
Mark Fainaru-Wada is one of two San Francisco Chronicle reporters who broke the Barry Bonds steroid stories. With a new book out, Fainaru-Wada discussed with Truthdig contributor James Harris whether Congress doesn’t have better things to do than hold hearings into pro sports; whether pro baseball really cares about cleaning up its image; and the federal government’s attempts to get Fainaru-Wada to disclose his confidential sources.
From the tone of his farewell address last week, you’d think Tom DeLay was being carried out of Congress on the shoulders of his colleagues, rather than slithering out of office with his tail between his legs.
The FDA just approved a vaccine to help protect against cervical cancer, but conservative Christian groups want to block its distribution out of fear that it would promote promiscuity.
Satirist Andy Borowitz tells us that North Korean President Kim Jong Il and televangelist Pat Robertson expressed outrage that they had been excluded from the competition.
A reviewer from the The Chicago Reader is the latest to join Gore Vidal and Buzzflash in praising Truthdig editor Robert Scheer’s new book “Playing President.”
Members of the media have been too easy on the Republican push to ban gay marriage. Yes, it may be all about politics, but does that mean society shouldn’t react harshly to the attempt to codify discrimination in our Constitution?
Department of Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff may have again revealed his incompetence by slashing New York’s anti-terror funding, but the problems plaguing that agency reach far deeper than one man.
Welcome to the Third World, America
